Top-ranked Saint Mary’s University (SMU) defeated CWU men’s rugby this Saturday in a close 30-27 match.

The Wildcats started strong in the first ten minutes with trys by senior center Marques Fuala’au and freshman fullback Drew Farrington, bringing the Wildcats to an initial 12-0 lead.

SMU answered back with a try of their own, but a missed conversion kept the lead at 12-5.

After a SMU penalty kick cut CWU’s lead to 12-8, sophomore scrum-half Kye Jones connected for his first of two trys of the day that helped CWU take a 19-8 lead into halftime.

Less than five minutes into the second half, Jones connected on his second try of the game and with a successful conversion CWU extended their lead to 27-8.

SMU, however, came back with trys in the 54th and 71st minute to cut the lead to 27-18. SMU cut CWU’s lead even further in the 76th minute with another try to make it a 27-23 game.

SMU scored the game-winning try in extra time to escape with a 30-27 win.

“I felt like we had a lot of opportunities today,” head coach Todd Thornley said in a post-game interview uploaded to CWU’s sports website. “But we weren’t quite clinical enough.”

CWU will travel to take on University of California, Berkeley on March 11.